When I met Roger Ebert.

My dad was in the army with Gene Siskel, so they knew each other, somewhat. My connection was with Roger Ebert. I knew him as the dour other half whose thumb pointed downward more often than upward when it came to movies I liked as a kid. But our tastes converged when it came to Pink Floyd's The Wall. So it's weird that this week sees both the first time I've ever watched The Wall on a big screen and the passing of Ebert, just a little while ago.

I was a Pink Floyd NUT near the final years of high school, so when I learned Alan parker, director of The Wall, was coming to town I immediately secured tickets to see him speak. The evening's interviewer / moderator was Ebert. And it was during that session I discovered Ebert was incredibly intelligent and asked questions I would have never thought of in order to secure answers I appreciated even more. Afterward I got Parker to sign a book of mine about Pink Floyd, in the chapter about The Wall. But then I walked over to Ebert to tell him what a good job he did, a compliment he took graciously. That was over twenty years ago and despite my time in the Chicago media scene our paths never crossed again. I never really regretted that until just now, figuring it was just a matter of time until I saw him again.

Goodbye, Roger.

RELATED: This latest turn in his health, when it was announced a few days ago, reminded me of the Thumbs Up Roger project Chicagoist did years ago during his initial health problems. It was always reassuring to see just how many people were pulling for him.